A teaching device is described which is shaped as a wristwatch and aside from being capable of telling a child numerically what time the clock hands indicate the device is further capable of changing the position of the clock hands each time the child has to refer to the numerical readout portion of the device.
All children seem to universally go through the frustrations of learning to tell time. It is very difficult for a child to have to put together the abstract concepts of having a clock face divided into 12 numbers coupled with hearing references such as "20 minutes after two" when in fact the clock has one hand pointed to the numeral 4 and one hand somewhere between the two and three.
The exasperation of the child from situations such as that described above and other situations summarized in the background section of U.S. Pat. No. 4,015,346 assigned to the same assignee as this patent application, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, has led to the construction of devices to help a child learn to tell time. The device in the above named patent is one such device. Other such devices are described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,539,025, U.S. Pat. No. 3,203,115 and British Pat. No. 17,281.
While the above noted devices all have certain utility none of them constitute portable devices which the child can wear on his person at all times and thus be more apt to use throughout the day. That is to say all of the above devices are directed to clock-type time telling machines and not to wristwatch-type time telling machines. In attempting to emanate adults, a child will wear a wristwatch-like device. If during the child's day he is able to refer to his wristwatch device whenever he sees adults doing the same he is exposed to a greater extend to the learning capabilities of this device compared to a toy which is large and bulky and therefore acceptable for playing with for limited time periods.
Toy wristwatches are, of course, known. One such toy wristwatch is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,561,153. This toy wristwatch, unfortunately, does not have the cabability of teaching the child how to coordinate the position of the clock hands with the actual time. Instead this toy teaches the child what activities are usually associated with a particular time such as getting on a school bus at 9 a.m., etc.
While the stationary clock-like teaching devices noted above do indicate numerically what time the hands are pointing to they do not automatically advance the hands once the child has looked at that portion of the device wherein the numerical indicators are located. Because of this the child is not forced to use his reasoning powers each time but can rely on his memorization powers. In the above device because the hands do not move each time the child refers to the numerical indicators the child can simply memorize what a particular hand position is. It is only when the child learns that basis behind the coordination between the hands and the numerical indicators that the child truly masters the correct telling of time.